A Greater Guarantee

Good morning, church. Good to see all of you this morning. We're still in the book of Hebrews. We're in the latter part of chapter seven today; we're happy to be there today. I spent most of this week in Atlanta.

I was there with a gathering of pastors from across the nation with a group called, “Christ Together.” And we're working on strategies of collaboration in our cities in order to make sure that every man, woman and child has repeated opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the gospel in our respective cities. And we recognize that there's really only one church in our cities and that's the Church of Jesus. But there are many varieties of churches represented in each city. So it's important that we don't compete, but we collaborate.

And so I was there with two of our pastors in Wilson - pastor Rusty from Peace Church and pastor Sherman from Mount Moriah Community Church. And so, the three of us spent the week studying together and strategizing. It’s been a very meaningful week. But I'm happy to be back with the family, back with you today.

And so, we’re back in the book of Hebrews, and in this series, we've entitled it, “Jesus is Greater.” We get that from the first chapter. As I say, if you look under the doormat here, you find the key. Here's the key to the book. It's in Hebrews 1:4 (NLT) “This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.”

Jesus is greater. He's greater than anything you're facing today. That's the theme of the book. And this week, we'll be in the latter part of chapter seven.

We've entitled this message, “A Greater Guarantee,” because Jesus offers the greatest guarantee. He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He's the fulfillment of all of the sacrificial laws and all of the temple worship. He is the one Who says, “It is finished. He has finished the work of redemption so that we can believe in Him by faith. He offers a greater guarantee than any other for salvation.

Now, when we think about guarantees, we think about promises; we think about warranties. For instance, how many of you get those phone calls, calling about an extended warranty on your car. It's about to run out, right?

You see a lot of memes on this; they can find you no matter where you are, no matter if you change your phone number. They're always calling. It always begins with a “robo call;” when you answer the phone, no one's there. Then, you hear a kind of click and then a real person comes on and that's kind of your fair warning. Go ahead and hang up, unless you just want to deal with a long conversation about your extended car warranty that's about to run out.

I saw a meme recently; it was a meme of Star Trek. Commander Worf says, “Captain Picard, you have a message from Earth.” The captain says, “Put it up on the screen, mister Worf.” It comes up on the screen: “Your extended warranty on your starship is about to run out.” We think of warranties, we think of guarantees, we think of these things and we think, Now who's going to back it up? Who's going to make it good?

You always hear this voice where somebody says that at the end; it’s all of the reasons that they're not going to keep the warranty. But what we have in Jesus is a greater promise, a greater warranty, a greater guarantee. Wouldn't you be pleased to know that today that you can always count on Him? In the book of Hebrews, the latter part of chapter seven, we will continue to hear the author explain to Jewish background believers in this sense this week how Jesus is a greater guarantee for our salvation.

I think as we look at the text today, we'll see the three reasons that the author gives, so let's dig in. We're in Hebrews 7:18-28 (ESV) 18 “For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.”

This is God's word. Amen. We're looking at three reasons that Jesus is a greater guarantee of salvation. Here's the first reason:

Jesus is our promised guarantor. Look at verse 22. Circle the word, “guarantor.” Do you see it there?

It's right there in the text. He is our promised guarantor. He's the one that the old covenant, which is the Old Testament, was always looking forward to. He's the one who is the backstop for all of those sacrifices. He's the one who fulfills them.

He's the guarantor. Whenever my children were going to college and they were getting student loans, I always had to co- sign those things. I had to be the “guarantor.” In case they didn't pay, I would pay. I was the “guarantor,”

the backstop, the warranty, if you will, that the bank wanted. They wanted someone who had a good credit history to pay those loans if they failed to do so. And that's basically what Jesus is in this sense. That which I have been unable to pay, you have been able to pay because we have been unable to keep the law. We've been unable to fulfill God's requirement for holiness because of our sinfulness.

And even all those sacrifices that the old covenant brought to bear were unable to perfect us because it was all external. It could not change us. One had to come to fulfill it. We needed a guarantor, one who could make all of that good. A backstop, one who could say, ‘I am able to pay.’

And so He did. On the cross, He became our redemption. He was able to pay. He's the guarantor of our salvation. Let's go verse by verse, which is our habit, as we go through the book of Hebrews.

Let's look at verse 18. He uses a turn of phrase here on the one hand, and then on the other hand, he talks about the former commandment. What's he talking about? He's talking about the Old Testament.

So on the one hand, the Old Testament is set aside. It's not put away; it's just set aside. It's set aside

for three reasons: (1) because of its weakness (2) because of its uselessness. And then in verse 19, (3) because it made nothing perfect. Let's talk about that for a second.

The law is written on paper for us today. In those days, it was written on stone tablets. It could not empower the people to keep it. It was weak in that sense. It was written down, you could see the standard, but it couldn't empower them to keep it.

It was weak in that regard. It had no power for them to keep it. It could only tell them what the standard for righteousness was. It was useless, not in the sense that it was not good, because it clearly was God's description of what holiness and righteousness looks like, but it was useless in the sense that you couldn't use it in order to keep it.

It couldn't make anything perfect. The idea here being the Greek word, therefore, “perfect” is “teleioō,” which means to complete, to bring to maturity, literally to bring to an end. And so the law was unable to make us like God needed us to be. It couldn't change the human heart. It was written on stone tablets, not written on human hearts.

And so this is not saying that the law is not good, because it is good, but it was unable to bring us to perfection. And what is this perfection that we're talking about? It means it was unable to make us like Jesus, bringing us to that place of maturity, so that we fully please the Father. And so he says, on the one hand, okay, the Old Testament's good. We really need it.

It teaches us a lot, but it can't save you.

It can't perfect, it can't bring to completion. Okay, that was “on the one hand,” “but on the other hand,” okay, now we're in verse 19, the latter part. “But on the other hand,” now we're going to talk about the New Testament. A better hope, a greater hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. Now, you remember in the Old Testament, only one person could go into the Holy of Holies, where the mercy seat of God was.

That was the high priest, according to the house of Aaron, which was according to the tribe of Levi. So you had to be born under Aaron and you had to fulfill all these requirements. And then, you could only go in there one day a year, on the day of atonement, and then you had to come in carrying the blood of the lamb to spread upon the mercy seat, which was the lid of the ark of the covenant. And then you better get out of there because you're only allowed in there one day a year to draw near. But now, through this better covenant, this better hope, all of us are able to come into the very presence of God.

What happened at the moment of Christ's crucifixion? Whenever He said, “It is finished,” it says that there was an earthquake. And the curtain that separated the holy place was torn from top to bottom, revealing the ark of the covenant and revealing that we can all draw near. You want to be near the Lord. You want to be drawn.

You want to come near to the Lord, you must come through Jesus. He is the guarantor. He is the promised guarantor. He's the one that pays for our access. He's a better hope.

We keep reading through the verses here. We're gonna cover up through verse 22. But notice this in verse 20. It was not without an oath that he came, so he came, this better guarantor, this greater. He came with an oath.

For those who were formerly priests, there was no oath from God. For them, there was a law, but no oath. But this one, this Christ, was made a priest with an oath. Now, here's what he's doing. He's been preaching from one verse of the old Testament for a couple of chapters.

Now, that's Psalm 110:4. Earlier in this chapter, he made a big deal about how Jesus was a priest, according to the order of this mysterious figure named Melchizedek. He worked all that out last week. If you weren't here last week, you can watch it online.

We already talked about that. But he's not finished with the verse. The verse has still got more meat on the bone. ‘Let's chew on it,’ he says. Let's chew on the rest of what's on the bone here.

He says, “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’” That's his home text. He's still preaching from that, except now, he wants to talk about this oath the Lord has sworn.

What has the Lord sworn? That he's a priest forever. That's what he wants to focus on. The Lord established through the law. The Levites would be the tribe that belonged to him.

They would be the priest and Aaron. All those sons born to the line of Aaron would qualify for high priests. That was set apart by the law of Moses, given to him by God. But this Jesus, he was set apart by God's oath. This is what he's saying, that he's unique.

Only this one has the Lord sworn by himself about this, that and what is it he has sworn that Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant, a greater covenant. Now, we almost called this message today, “A Greater Covenant,” because it says a better covenant right there. But then we looked at chapter eight and found out he's actually going to talk more about the covenant in chapter eight. So we “backed up the bus” and said, ‘Well, let's call it a better guarantee, because that's what Jesus is. He's the guarantor of this.’

Now, if the law can't save, why the law? Why did God give it? I mean, that's a lot of books back there. There's more books back there than there are up here. Why did he give it?

Well, Paul starts to work this out a little bit. In the book of Galatians, chapter three, hopefully you have this in your notes. You can watch it on the screen. Galatian 3:23-25 (NLT) 23 “Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. 24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.” Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. So, like, the law is like a guard rail that keeps the people of God in the area of blessing so that you don't run off a cliff.

Basically, it's a guard rail. So the law is good as a guard rail. You know better than to kill someone, you know better than to steal. You know, you should honor your father and mother because it could limit how long you live if you don't honor them. These are guard rails.

So, like, the law protects you in a sense. It doesn't empower you. You can still close your eyes, go to sleep and bang off of a guard rail and go over the cliff. It doesn't keep you from going over the cliff. It just gives you a guard rail and kind of a warning track.

Have you ever been driving on the interstate, but hopefully this has never happened to you and felt yourself dozing off? They've started putting these little bumpy things on the side of the road before you hit the guardrail. Boy, that'll wake you up. That's better than hitting the guardrail. That's kind of like what the law is. It's like a warning track and a guardrail.

Okay, so I'm not supposed to be preaching Galatians right now, but I can't help myself. I'm kind of preaching Galatians a little bit, okay? We were kept in protective custody, so to speak. He says, “until the way of faith was revealed.” Then, in verse 24, he says, “Let me put it another way.” He's going to give us another illustration.

24 “Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.” So it's like a guard rail. Do you know what else the law is like?

It's like in a rich man's house, he hires a guardian to watch over his children and to teach them. And so the guardian is a servant of the rich man, but the son is under the guardian until he comes to maturity. Now, the law, the guardian is now a servant of the son, like that. And so it's temporary.

So the law was always temporary, like a guardian in a rich man's house. It was only designed to teach the way of righteousness but not able to empower it. And it was always temporary, something you would outgrow when you came to maturity. Okay, those are two pictures he gave in the book of Galatians. So why was the law given?

It was like a guardrail, like a guardian. Those are good things. But we need a guarantor to come. We need one that would fulfill it.

And he offers a better hope. You know, it says in the book of 1 Timothy that there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus is the mediator. He's the better guarantor. Now, when I was a little boy, my father worked at Sears and Roebuck in downtown Bristol, Virginia.

It was a three- story building in those days, before Sears started moving out to malls and such. We would go downtown; my father was one of the managers. I loved going downtown. You could smell popcorn as you walked in the door.

It just made you want to eat popcorn. My father worked there for many years and I remember that he got a discount at Sears, so he always bought Sears products. One of the products that he really raved about was Craftsman tools.

He loved those Craftsman tools. We'd be working on something at the house and my dad would go to his metal Craftsman toolbox and he would pull out something. I remember the first time I saw a ratchet. I was like, what is that? That's the coolest looking tool I've ever seen.

He says to me, “Gary,the reason I buy these Craftsman tools is not just because I get a discount at Sears. It's because they have a lifetime guarantee. They have a lifetime guarantee, so always buy Craftsmen, my son.” He passes this on to me.

I looked this up this week. You know, Sears bought the name, Craftsman, from the Marion Craftsman Tool Company in 1927 for $500. Of course, Sears never made things. They were a retailer. So if you wanted a washer, dryer or a refrigerator, I think Whirlpool made most of the Kenmore stuff.

It turned out that Stanley tools made most of the Craftsman hand tools, but they had to make them in a certain precise way so they could keep this guarantee of this lifetime warranty. Sears was the biggest retailer in the world at one time. They had 3,500 stores across the United States. Do you think there's any more Sears today?

Can you find one today? There happened to be, according to my reading this past week, ten left. Ten Sears stores left. There's some in California, some in Florida, there's a couple in other states, but there's none in North Carolina. So if you have a Craftsman tool today, who's the guarantor?

Here's what Sears did in 2017. They sold the name to the Stanley Black and Decker company. Stanley had been making the tools, I think, anyway, a lot of the hand tools. Do you know how much they paid for the Sears $500 investment?

Remember in 1927, they paid $500 for the name? They paid $900 million for the right to use the Craftsman name. They've distributed it out now to companies like Lowe's. So, you can go to Lowe's now. You don't have to go to Sears and get Craftsman.

And did you know if you go to the customer service desk at Lowe's, they have to honor it because if someone doesn't back it, the warranty is no good. Lowe's, in order to carry Craftsman tools, has to guarantee a lifetime use of these hand tools. If you go in with a chipped Craftsman screwdriver and you go to the customer service desk, you can put it on the counter and say, “My Craftsman's screwdriver is broken,” they're supposed to say, (I haven't tested it yet) ‘Well, go get another screwdriver, bring it back here.’ If it matches, you don't have to have a receipt or anything.

That is the power of the lifetime warranty. But every warranty has to have a backer, a guarantor. And here's what we have. You want to be sure of heaven, you want to be sure of eternal life. You want to be sure of salvation.

It is not by works. It is not by your sacrifice. It's by one sacrifice that Jesus kept when He said, “It is finished.” It is paid in full. He is the guarantee for your salvation.

He is our ultimate promise of salvation. Now, here's the second; here's the second reason. The first is because he is the promised guarantor.

Jesus is our eternal priest. We're on verse 23 and following, we're going verse by verse. Look at verse 24, circle two words in verse 24 if you're taking notes, “permanently” and “forever.”

”Permanently” and “forever.” And then in verse 25, the phrase, “always lives.” Put those together and you get an eternal priest. He's permanent.

He's forever. He always lives. Let's “unpack it.” In verse 23, “The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office,” The former priests, that's speaking of the Old Testament priests, were many in number because they had a problem -

they kept dying. They had a death problem. They were mortal. They were prevented by death from continuing in office. So you'd have a high priest and then he would die

and you got another high priest. So, they had a death problem. What they needed was a priest that didn't have a death problem, one that could defeat death. But verse 24 says, “but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.” But He, not those former priests, but He, Jesus, holds His priesthood permanently because He continues forever.

Forever. He's the permanent high priest. And then, one of my favorite verses is verse 25, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” Consequently, because ofHis permanence, because of this, because He continues forever, He is able to save to the uttermost. He doesn't partially save.

He completely saves to the uttermost. He's able to save. Now, the word “able,” I like this word, “able,” in the Greek. It's the Greek word, “dunamai.” It's where we get the words, “dynamic” or “dynamo.”

It means “power.” It's the kind of explosive power that's able to save to the uttermost. He's like dynamite power, “dunamai.” He's able. Whereas, the law was unable.

He is able to save us to the uttermost. And then it goes on, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God.” Remember how the high priest could only go in there one day a year? Nobody else was allowed to go in there, and he was only allowed to go in there if he carried the blood of the lamb.

But now, because Jesus has already paid in full, because He is the perfect, eternal high priest, we, every one of us, each of us can draw near to God. We can lean all the way in. We can come right into His presence through Jesus, because He is our eternal, permanent high priest. He's able to save. How much is he able to save us?

To the uttermost. To the uttermost. Now, you think about salvation. You think about Ephesians 2:8-9, 8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; 9it is not from works, so no one may boast.”

Inside that Greek verb, there's the sense of something that happened once in time and has continuous effect into the future. In theology, when you're studying that kind of Greek word, it says it has punctiliar action with continuous result. That's kind of a heavy duty sounding verb, isn't it? But here's what it means. Let me “put the cookies on the bottom shelf” for you here.

It, first of all, l means that when you receive Jesus, you have been saved. You have been saved from sin's penalty. In theological terms, that's called justification - “just as if I never sinned.” Your slate's been wiped clean because Jesus took your sin and offers His righteousness.

You have been saved. But it also means in that Greek word that it has continuous action. You are being saved from sin's power. He's able; He's able to save to the uttermost. So in the present, if you're a believer in Jesus, you are being saved from sin's power, which is sanctification.

That's the big theological word. And then in the future, that arrow that goes out says, you will be saved from sin's presence. There's a day coming when sin will have no effect upon you. That's called glorification.

He can save to the uttermost. He can save to the uttermost. He's able to do that. Verse 25 continues, “those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” He's always praying.

He's always advocating for us. He's always doing this. He's a perpetual high priest. He's always pulling for us. It says in

Hebrews 4:14-16 (ESV) 14 “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” He's not a distant advocate. He's not like a lawyer that you call up on an 800 number, in order to represent you on some speeding ticket or something else like that.

This lawyer will represent you, but he doesn't know you and he doesn't emotionally connect to you. But here's Jesus, Who lives forever. He's been tempted just as you, yet without sin. He understands you. He sympathizes with you and He lives forever to intercede for you. That is continuous access that He offers as a priest. And then Paul says this in the book of Romans about how He gives us this access. He says, in Romans 5:1-2 (ESV) 1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” We've obtained access by faith through Him. He says in John, chapter ten, “I am the door. I am the gate.” He's the entry point into access with the Father.

Now you might be asking, ‘Okay, the law is not able to do these things. Why did God give us all of this if it's not able to save? How did Old Testament saints get saved?

What was the way? Wasn't it by works? Wasn't the old covenant they had to keep the law in order to be saved?’ No, faith has always been the means of salvation.

It's never changed. That's a constant. Here's what Charles Ryrie says in his theological book. He says, ‘The basis of salvation in every age is the death of Christ; the requirement for salvation in every age is faith; the object of faith in every age is God; the content of faith changes in the various dispensations.’”

The object of faith in every age is God; It's always been by faith. Let me tell you a quick story. There was this man named Abraham, who God gave him a promise of a son and He gave him Isaac. And then God tested his faith because when God promised Abraham Isaac, it says that Abraham believed God.

He believed the promise and God credited it to him as righteousness. It was his faith in the promise that God gave him credit for righteousness. It wasn't works. Abraham lived before the law. Okay.

And then later, (that was in Genesis chapter 15) in Genesis, chapter 22, Isaac is growing up. He's probably twelve or thirteen years old. I don't know how old he is, but he's a young man. God tells Abraham to go and offer his son as a sacrifice. Well, Abraham knows that this is his promised son, but he goes by faith and he takes him up on the hill.

And the little boy, Isaac, says to him, ‘Father, you know, we've been doing sacrifices before. And I see that we've brought wood, and I see that we've brought fire, but where's the lamb?’ And Abraham says, “God will provide the lamb.” God's gotta make provision here. God's going to have to make this good.

And so he goes up and he gets ready to sacrifice his son, Isaac. And then an angel of the Lord prevents him and says, “Look, there's a ram with its caught in the thicket.” God provided the lamb. And then, when Abraham came down the hill, the Lord spoke to him that there would be fulfillment on this mount. There would be fulfillment on this mountain.

I believe that Mount Moriah, the place where Abraham went to offer Isaac, is actually the hill called Golgotha, where Jesus actually paid in full the price. It's the same area, the same hill. God provided the Lamb. This is what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus coming to the Jordan river. He says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

So, Gary, how did the Old Testament saints find salvation, through faith in God's provision? Okay, I'm going to tell you a metaphor for this. Older people, explain this to the younger people later. There used to be this thing called a “checkbook.”

It was a book full of sheets of paper that you could tear off. Parents and grandparents, our kids and grandchildren are coming to us; they've got this thing called “fundraisers” at school. And so, here's a check to little Johnny. You write the name on the check, “John Smith,” the date, and the amount of $25. It used to be $10, but now everything's a lot just for candy bars. You have to write it out.

And then, below, you write “for a fundraiser for my grandson.” Then, you sign your name. Now, what makes that sheet of paper good? Is that a valuable sheet of paper? No, it's a worthless sheet of paper. What makes that sheet of paper good is the name of the bank and the name of the guarantor that signed it.

That's what makes it good. You could tear off one of these checks and hand it to someone; you just paid them. I know, explain it to the young people later. That’s a sheet of paper that has no value unless it is guaranteed that if you present it to a bank, you could actually get that $25. Do you understand the checking system now? Do you understand that the check has no value;

it's the name of the bank and the name of the person that you're putting your faith in, that this is legal tender, that it actually pays. Now, that's what all of these sacrifices were; those lambs had no value. Those bulls, those goats and all those offerings that they had to keep making over and over again, 365 days a year, were worthless sheets of paper, but all of them were signed with a guarantor that God would provide a Lamb. Then He did; 2000 years ago. So all of those people were “writing checks” and believing that God was going to make it good.

I used to be able to do this, I don't think you can do this anymore, but I used to write checks on Friday when we first got married and I was young and broke. I'd write a check on Friday, knowing that I had until 2:00pm on Monday to make it good, right? I would get paid Monday morning; I had just enough time to make it good. Well, they were writing checks on these sacrifices, by faith, that God would make it good.

Jesus paid it in full. He made it good; He made the payment. Here we are in the present and we're looking back. They were looking forward, we're looking back and we're doing the same thing. We're placing our faith that the “check” that He wrote, that He signed with His own blood, is good. It's good. It's perfect. It's all that we need.

He's the guarantor. We place our faith in God that His provision is good. Salvation has always been by God's grace, through our faith in His provision, which leads us to the final reason. We've said that, number one, Jesus is our guarantor. He's our promised guarantor and second, He's our eternal high priest. And then finally:

This is the third reason he gives. We're in the final verses, verses 26 through 28. I want you to look at the last words there in verse 28, “For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.” Now it begins to talk about the sacrifice that this priest offered. He'd been talking about him being a priest, but now the perfect sacrifice, He's been made perfect.

It's complete here. “Perfect” is, again, the idea of “paid in full.”It's complete; perfect. So let's “unpack” these verses. Verse 26, “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest…”

It was fitting because all of this old Testament stuff had been pointing to Him that God would provide. It was always pointing to Him. And here are some attributes of this perfect sacrifice and this perfect priest: He's holy. There's no one like Him.

He's set apart. He's innocent, which means He's never sinned. He's innocent; even in His thought life there's no thought of sin. He's unstained; He's never had the stain of sin on Him. He's separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.

These are the perfect attributes of this high priest, who offers Himself as a sacrifice. Now, you could say that all of those things are true – holy, innocent, unstained and separated. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” So this unstained, innocent, holy, set apart from sinners, Jesus, on the cross, He took it all upon Himself.

He took what we had incurred, our debt. He took it on and became the backstop, the guarantor of our unpaid debt. He took our death. The wages of sin is death. He took our sin upon Himself.

He who knew no sin became sin. The scripture says, “...so that the father turned his back on the son. And the son cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” He who knew no sin became sin. So, He took my death; He took my sin.

And then He took my separation from the Father.

’Why have you forsaken me, father?’ And then He offers, in place of what He took upon Himself; He took my death and He offers his eternal life. He took my sin. He offers His righteousness. He took my separation.

He offers His sonship so that we have immediate access to the Father. And not just through a door, but as a son, as a daughter, as a child of God.

So He is fitting. He's the one who offers these things. Verse 27, “He has no need,

like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.” Those other priests were the ones who had the dying problem, the ones who had to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins because they were sinners. So when they offered the blood, they were, first of all, offering the blood for their own sin. Then they were offering it for the people. It says that He didn't have to do all that because He wasn't sinful. He didn't have to offer it over and over and over again because He paid the ultimate once for all. It says, “since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”

So now, the sacrificial system is no longer needed because all those checks have been paid in full. They've been paid in full. He did it once for all. It no longer needs to happen, for the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests. But the word of the oath, the one found in Psalm 110:4, speaking of what God said, he swore by himself that this one, according to the order of Melchizedek, would be a priest forever.

He does not change His mind.

He swore that this was the perfect sacrifice. He appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. He's the perfect sacrifice, this Jesus. He's the only one we need. It might be that as I'm preaching this, you might say, ‘Gary, we knew most of this; how does the Old Testament fit in?’

Maybe this helped you today. Maybe this helped you. Or maybe you've been thinking, ‘Well, isn't it about religion? Isn't it about doing good? Isn't it about good works?’

No, it's about Jesus, Who already paid the way. What the law showed us is that no one is good enough. The purpose of the law was to reveal the law. I said it was like a guard. And like a guardian, there's one other thing that the law is good for.

It's a good mirror. You look in the mirror and you see something.

You need to fix that right there. It's a mirror. So you look and you see the imperfections of your life. So it's good for those things. It's a guard.

It's a guardian. It's a mirror, but it has no power to save. But this Jesus offers a perfect sacrifice, and He's able to save to the uttermost. It says in the book of Ephesians 5:2 (ESV) “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

It says in 1 John 4:10 (NIV) “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” He's the perfect sacrifice. Do you remember the night of the Lord's Supper, when Jesus was speaking to the disciples and they were remembering the Passover meal? He says something to them that changed the way they grew up. They grew up

memorizing all of the words to the Passover. Jesus said to them, “Do you see this cup?” He's saying something different here. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” What was He saying?

There's a New Testament coming; it's the fulfillment of the Old Testament. We still need the Old Testament because it is the undergirding for the New Testament. But the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Jesus says, “This cup is a new covenant in my blood.”

And this is why we offer the Lord's Supper at our services. We remember this, that the bread represents His body broken for us, and the cup represents His blood, shed for us. Luke 22:20 says, "In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you'". You might be trying to live the perfect life. The law says you'll fail, but the New Testament says through Jesus, He fulfilled it for you. This is true Christianity.

It's not about religion. It's about a relationship with a person named Jesus. He's the greatest guarantee. He's the one who guarantees for you eternal life and a right relationship with the Father. Some of us struggle with perfectionism.

Some of us struggle with wanting to plan every detail and to stay in comfortable places. One of the things that this perfectionist in the past that God has often dealt with me is what the scripture says, “Man makes his plans, but God determines his steps.” Every time you're trying to be too perfect, you always fall short. And then you become self judgmental.

You become judgmental of others. And this is the path of legalism. It's the path really to destruction. But the good life, the blessed life, the life trusting in Jesus, leads to a place of liberty, a place of love, where you can actually say,”You're God and I'm not.”

Even if my plans don't come to pass, I know that, through Jesus, I have a guarantee that I'm right with You, Father, and I'm forgiven and I have eternity to live with you forever. Oh, it's better than trying to earn your way, which will always fall short. Let us trust in Jesus as our promised guarantor, our eternal priest, and our perfect sacrifice. Let's pray. Lord, thank You for Your word.

Thank You for Jesus. I pray for that person, here this morning, who has never committed their life to Jesus. Would you do it right now? Maybe you're watching online or in the next room. Wherever you are right now, fully present, listening, would you say, ‘I'm a sinner.I have fallen short of God's law.

I have fallen short of His righteousness. I admit that. I confess it and I repent. I want to turn from that and I want to follow Jesus. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me, that He was raised from the grave and that He lives today.

I believe that. Lord Jesus, come into my life. Forgive me of my sin, adopt me into Your family. Make me a child of God. I want to follow You all the days of my life as my Lord and Savior.’ If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, it's faith in His gift that saves.

It's faith in that grace that God offers in Jesus. Others are here today and you're a Christ follower, but you've been falling into some things lately where you're just trying to have a perfect life and things aren't working out. You're struggling with things and you're frustrated. There's anger just below the surface sometimes that things don't work out the way you planned. Would you just relax right now? Would you say, ‘Lord, forgive me for trying to be God of my own life.

Forgive me. I say right now that You're God and I'm not. Help me to dwell on the person of Jesus, Who has paved the way. He's the answer. Help me to rest in Him, no longer weary and heavy laden.

Help me to come to Jesus, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light.’ May you know this peace today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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1. Because Jesus is our promised guarantor.

2. Because Jesus is our eternal priest.

3. Because Jesus is our perfect sacrifice.

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